Play review:

Saturday

Jun 30, 2007 at 2:00 AM

Poughkeepsie — The war in Iraq is a timely topic for a new play, and "Geometry of Fire" by Stephen Belber takes a riveting approach by putting human faces on both sides of the conflict. A Marine reservist back from Iraq and a Saudi Arabian who has lost his father meet in a bar and confront each other about their personal anger and trauma.

James F. CotterJames F. Cotter

Poughkeepsie — The war in Iraq is a timely topic for a new play, and "Geometry of Fire" by Stephen Belber takes a riveting approach by putting human faces on both sides of the conflict. A Marine reservist back from Iraq and a Saudi Arabian who has lost his father meet in a bar and confront each other about their personal anger and trauma.

Before they meet, each one develops his own story. Tariq, the Saudi-American, is bitter about the death of his father in Washington, D.C., apparently from contaminated soil, although the government stonewalls his attempts to find the truth. The Marine Mel is suffering from post-traumatic guilt attacks about a young Iraqi teenager he has killed without provocation. Both men are human landmines ready to explode.

The Powerhouse production of "Geometry" is unrelentingly stark, grim and violent in its verbal assault on the horrors of war and the confusions it causes. As Mel, Logan Marshall-Green in his dull-eyed facial expressions and desperate gestures relives the pain of a man unable to untangle himself from the web of his problems. When he breaks down and finally speaks about the experience he has tried to suppress, he is visibly moved and at the same time truly moving in his tearful show of remorse. As Tariq, Piter Marek is unstoppable in his quest for answers and relentless while he builds up angry frustration as he fails to find them. Like two forces of nature, these two are headed on a collision course that is the climax of the play.

Reed Birney plays Mel's father Bob, a pacifist who went to jail in the Vietnam War. At first he seems glib with his son, but he becomes more sympathetic as Mel reaches out for help. Additionally, Birney takes on the role of Chuck, an ex-soldier preacher-healer who promises to relieve Mel of his psychological distress by pseudo-scientific remedies. Birney also appears briefly as the ghost of Tariq's dead father.

Mia Barron plays several roles with notable conviction: the goodhearted bar-lady Cynthia, an officious Army investigator, a psychologist and dubious adviser.

Lucie Tiberghein has directed this play so that the audience faces the issues without a moment's distraction. The set design by Andromache Chalfant involves cheap tables and chairs that are moved around constantly beneath an overhanging steel ramp. The ramp itself looks ominous and fixed forever in space. Anne Kennedy's costumes are appropriately dark and drab, while Matthew Richards' sparse lighting effects evoke the encompassing gloom.